Why the ALR Keeps Metro Vancouver Industrial Land Scarce
Most markets add industrial land by rezoning the farm next door. Metro Vancouver cannot. The Agricultural Land Reserve makes the industrial land base effectively fixed, and that shapes every rent and land value in the region.
July 7, 2026 · 2 min read · By Samuel Brahem, in association with NAI Commercial
How the ALR works
Created in 1973, the ALR protects about 4.7 million hectares of BC farmland, with large holdings in Surrey, Langley, Delta, Richmond and Abbotsford, exactly where industrial would otherwise expand. Exclusion needs provincial approval from the Agricultural Land Commission, not a municipal rezoning. Approval rates are low, and 2019 policy changes tightened the process and removed most weight on economic arguments.
Where the boundary bites
- Richmond: industrial confined to the airport, Highway 99 and Bridgeport nodes; net rents about $20.26 per sq. ft. in Q2 2026
- Delta and Tilbury: boxed in by ALR land and Burns Bog; net rents about $17.91
- Surrey and Campbell Heights: the region's main planned expansion, but later phases face their own limits; net rents about $18.66
- Langley and Abbotsford: Gloucester, the 200th Street corridor and the Abbotsford interchange nodes cannot grow past their edges; about $19.20 and $17.09
What it does to pricing
Serviced industrial land in Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond often exceeds $3 million to $5 million per acre. Regional net asking rents climbed to a peak near $22 per sq. ft. in 2023 and sit around $19.10 in Q2 2026, still far above a decade ago. The pullback since 2023 is cyclical. The land base did not grow.
Today's rent relief is a pause in the cycle, not new supply.
What to do with that
- Owners: scarcity underwrites your holding, but expanding onto a neighbouring ALR parcel is usually impossible; plan footprint growth inside what you own
- Occupiers: large requirements mean looking further out or going build-to-suit on the few developable sites; renewals in tight nodes should assume no easy alternative
- Investors: treat the ALR as a supply moat; it supports long-term rent assumptions and explains why competition for quality assets stays intense
- Everyone: banking ALR land on an exclusion thesis is a bet the policy record does not support
Not going away
The ALR has survived fifty years and governments of every stripe. Underwrite it as permanent.
